When discussing literature that explores the Great Depression and specifically the struggles of migrant farm workers during that time, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is often the keynote piece of writing. John Steinbeck was born in 1902 into a family with a modest financial status, his father changed his career around multiple times and his mother worked as well. The town of Salinas where Steinbeck grew up is located in the Central Valley in California, a town that is currently in the agricultural hub of the United States. When Steinbeck was growing up the Central Valley was an agricultural town and how it was affected by the Great Depression would heavily influence his writing. Following the publication of The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck was regarded with much scorn in his hometown, because of how the book portrayed the region and its inhabitants. Other demographics were unhappy with the book as well, wealthier farmers felt that they had been portrayed as greedy and Oklahomans were unhappy with being associated with a state that Steinbeck had painted as poverty stricken. Despite all of the backlash from his book Steinbeck was considered to be a literary genius, earning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. The Grapes of Wrath was written about a family that moved West, to the Central Valley in California from Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl because the job opportunities for this family in Oklahoma were nonexistent. Also, during this time California, the agricultural sector especially, was considered to be the land where jobs were plentiful, unfortunately, this was not the truth. After arriving in California the family realizes how the Great Depression has reduced jobs even in California and makes their living by wandering from work camp to work camp, working for whatever wages are offered to them. The camps that they stayed in were based on the same ones that Steinbeck observed near his home in Salinas. The conditions described there horrified Steinbeck and his portrayal of the camps are part of what made this book so powerful and what angered the wealthier farmers. In conclusion, The Grapes of Wrath is a powerful piece that accurately depicts how the Great Depression affected families whose livelihood was tied to the agricultural industry.
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/people/john-steinbeck-9493358
http://www.steinbeck.org/about-john/
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Alex, this post is very interesting. It is interesting to observe how the economic situation that Steinbeck had to deal with ended up ultimately reflecting the content of his novels and his own opinions. I think that this could be found in another topic that I searched up. Due to the plight of the common man during the times of the Depression, Steinbeck joined the League of American Writers, a communist organization that had many other high-profile writers. He earned a lot of criticism for this decision, but it shows how the economics of the time affected writers and their creative decisions. People often reacted to the situation in drastic ways.
ReplyDeleteSrc: http://www.times-standard.com/opinion/20130224/remembering-john-steinbeck-a-great-american-writer
Alex, I thought that your post was very interesting. I really liked how you focused your article on "The Grapes of Wrath" to highlight the sentiments that many farmers during this time were feeling. As you mentioned, Steinbeck was from Salinas- which even today, remains a town still very agriculturally based. We usually race out in Salinas for cross country, and it is very interesting to see the obvious change in not only the landscape- but also the people, the buildings etc. compared to Silicon Valley. It is interesting that there still remains such a huge divide- just as it was back then- between the farming and working classes today. I was reading about Steinbeck, and also found that he was inspired to write the Grapes of Wrath by visiting labor camps in the US. Even more interesting, was that Steinbeck would pay the workers in his hometown of Salinas 25 cents if they would tell him their life's story.
ReplyDeletehttp://mentalfloss.com/article/68038/11-facts-about-grapes-wrath